Friday, June 9, 2017

Eric Trump has a foundation that has substantially benefited
St. Jude’s Hospital. There is no doubt
about this and the sums have been admirable.
But like everything else the Trumps touch, even the good stuff, they
leave a trail of greed and slime. Forbes
magazine has the details.

The affair is complicated, but here is a summary of what
they did. Eric Trump started out by
getting to use a Trump golf course for a fund raiser with no charges. But then Donnie heard about it and things
changed.

But in 2011, things took a
turn. Costs for Eric Trump's tournament jumped from $46,000 to $142,000,
according to the foundation's IRS filings. Why would the price of the
tournament suddenly triple in one year? "In the early years, they weren't
being billed [for the club]--the bills would just disappear," says Ian
Gillule, who served as membership and marketing director at Trump National
Westchester during two stints from 2006 to 2015 and witnessed how Donald Trump
reacted to the tournament's economics. "Mr. Trump had a cow. He flipped.
He was like, 'We're donating all of this stuff, and there's no paper trail? No
credit?' And he went nuts. He said, 'I don't care if it's my son or
not--everybody gets billed.' "

A second thing that happened is that one Trump foundation
donates some money to other Trump foundation.
Okay nothing wrong with that. But
then the foundation turns around and uses it to pay for services at other Trump
properties.

After it was successful the big boys took over from Eric

In 2010, the year the
economics of the tournament suddenly pivoted, four of the seven original board
members, who were personal friends of Eric, left. Those 4 were eventually
replaced by 14 new board members, the majority of whom owed all or much of
their livelihoods to the Trump Organization. Six of them were effectively
full-time employees, including Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and executive vice
president Dan Scavino Jr., who both serve in political roles for President
Trump. Another owns a company that billed the Trump campaign $16 million. Add
in Eric himself, as well as his wife, Lara, and 9 of the 17 Eric Trump
Foundation board members had a vested interest in the moneymaking side of the
Trump empire. The foundation had become a de facto subsidiary of the Trump
Organization.

“I’ve never seen
hatred like this,” Trump said. “To me, they’re not even people. It’s so, so
sad. I mean, morality’s just gone. Morals have flown at the window. We deserve
so much better than this as a country.”